ABOUT HOUSING WORKS

Housing Works, the nation’s largest minority-controlled AIDS organization, is proud to present the fourth-annual Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awards, held on Thursday April 17, 2008 at the Times Center in New York City. Given to those who demonstrate extraordinary courage and commitment in the fight to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the award is named for the cofounder of Housing Works, a fearless AIDS activist who died of AIDS-related complications in 2004.

All proceeds from the Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awards go to the Keith Cylar Activist Fund, which has raised $1.6 million in support of advocacy and activism by people living with HIV/AIDS in America and around the world.

Keith Cylar Activist Fund

The Keith Cylar Activist Fund establishes a continuing legacy to the life and work of Housing Works cofounder Keith Cylar, an uncompromising AIDS activist who died in 2004.

The Fund will create a permanent endowment to support advocacy and activism by people living with HIV/AIDS in America and around the world, ensuring that they receive the training and ongoing support they need to fully involve themselves in AIDS policy and decision-making. The Fund supports the Keith Cylar Activist Awards, given annually to activists on the global, national and Housing Works community level to empower them in their work.

The 2008 Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awardees

Born in Saint-Marc in 1960, Esther was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1995. In December 1998 she was interviewed on a private TV station about her illness—the first time in Haiti that a person with HIV/AIDS had gone public in such a way. Her testimony provoked a scandal in Saint-Marc, and she endured the hostility of her family. Undeterred by the scorn, Esther has established a foundation to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide medical and psychological aid to those carrying the virus. The Fondation Esther Boucicault Stanislas (FEBS) aims to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS in Bas-Artibonite through quality care and support services and reducing stigma and discrimination, as well as making other improvements in their lives that subsequently put them at a lesser risk for opportunistic infections, social isolation, gender-based violence, and remaining in a cycle of poverty.

Without funding and with some support from her church, Gloria Gonzalez works to help and organize the injection drug users that she once joined in shooting heroin at a “shooting gallery” in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Gloria's work makes it clear that there is no coherent government policy for syringe exchange, treatment, support and housing of injection drug users, which halts the distribution of clean syringes to the island's five syringe exchange programs beginning in July through an indeterminate time period due to funding shortages. This governmental neglect has resulted in the further spread of HIV, Hepatitis C and untold unnecessary infections and deaths. Gloria dreams of creating supportive housing for active injection drug users by renovating an abandoned factory building just a few miles from the shooting gallery where she used to do heroin.

Diane Williams came to Housing Works as a client in 1994. In 2003, she graduated from our Second Life Job Training Program and has since worked as the administrative assistant to the Senior Vice President for Housing/Chief Financial Officer. Diane has become one of the most visible members of the Housing Works community and regularly participates in AIDS advocacy efforts. She has been arrested on more than one occasion at civil disobedience actions. One of the most memorable was a peaceful take-over of Bush/Cheney campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, in 2004 after Vice President Cheney commented that he was unaware that there was an AIDS problem among African American women. More recently, Diane was arrested in New York City as one of the “Broadway 12” who stopped traffic on Broadway by lying down in the street to demand federal intervention in Puerto Rico’s AIDS crisis. She was featured in the Housing Works’ 2006 holiday campaign with her son Reggie, a graduate of the Housing Works Summer Youth Enrichment Program who attends Columbia University.

Founded in 1999, Health GAP is comprised of U.S.-based AIDS and human rights activists, people living with HIV/AIDS, public health experts, fair trade advocates and concerned individuals who campaign against policies of neglect and avarice that deny treatment to millions and fuel the spread of HIV. They are dedicated to eliminating barriers to global access to affordable life-sustaining medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS as key to a comprehensive strategy to confront and ultimately stop the AIDS pandemic. They believe that the human right to life and to health must prevail over the pharmaceutical industry's excessive profits and expanding patent rights.

Asia Russell is Director of International Advocacy for Health GAP. Russell has been an organizer and member of ACT UP Philadelphia since 1995. Russell has coordinated the efforts of successful ACT UP campaigns on issues ranging from national AIDS drug pricing policies to health care justice for US prisoners and detainees with AIDS or hepatitis C.

Paul Davis is Director of US Governmental Affairs at Health GAP. Paul is a leader in ACT UP Philadelphia and has worked in legislative affairs for Action AIDS. He learned community organizing when he was a tenant organizer in Seattle, Washington.